City News

In 1960’s Oklahoma, greasers Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny find themselves in more heat than they can handle.  S.E. Hinton’s debut novel, The Outsiders, was published in 1967, when she was just 19.  Hinton based the characters, the greasers and the socs, off of teenage gangs and alienated youth in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma during her teenage years.

The Outsiders offers an insight into two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy, Ponyboy Curtis.  The novel follows his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider.  According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs (short for “social”). Socs are upper class youth who have money, can get away with just about anything, and have attitudes longer than the limousines they can afford to buy.  On the other hand, the greasers are the poor boys from the East Side of town who band together to provide for each other's needs. Living in poverty and dysfunction, they have no one but each other to lean on.  Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether one is a soc or a greaser.

This book is beautifully written by Ms. S.E. Hinton.  I would highly recommend it to book clubs or middle school teachers that might like to include it in their curriculum.  The pacing and structure are easy to follow yet very powerful, as simple sentences are used to describe moments of great emotion.  At first glance, many believe the book romanticizes teen violence and characters with undesirable traits, however, these are very superficial observations.  The character development is very well thought out and can teach anyone who reads it a very important life lesson.

I would mainly recommend this book to anyone in middle school or older, as I believe that is the target audience.  Although this may be true, there are some themes that are possibly triggering.  These include, profanity, death, gang violence, underage drinking/smoking.  Even though Hinton does not go into great detail in these instances, readers may want to be aware of what is yet to come when starting a new book.

I believe that The Outsiders is a great book written by a great author with a great message.  If you are interested in reading this book or others like it, I have a few recommendations.  The Catcher in the Rye is another highly recommended and acclaimed book that explores many of the same themes as The Outsiders.  They are both extremely notable coming-of-age novels that follow teenage protagonists with some sort of turmoil, whether it be internal or external.  If you liked the honest telling of teenage life in Hinton’s novel and the social hierarchies explored there, you may very well enjoy Looking for Alaska, by John Green.  This book not only examines themes like teenage drinking, depression, dealing with grief and loss, but also explores the dynamics of a wealth divide and the certain privileges that those with money are awarded compared to those who don’t come from means.

All in all, The Outsiders is a wonderful book that reminds us all to stay golden, and to look at the sunset from time to time.

Check out The Outsiders from the Newport Beach Public Library!